Study says Low-dose Aspirin Safe Way to Reduce Colon Cancer Risk

A recent study showed that taking lower dose of aspirin is a safer way to reduce the risk of colon cancer.

British researchers found out that taking a lower dose of aspirin can help reduce number of cases of colon cancers and its cancer death rates.

Colon cancer is the second to the leading cancer form in developed countries, and the findings bring light to their research that aspirin can help a person in preventing the occurrenceof colon cancer.

The findings been published in the Lancet Medical Journal, however the findings are unlikely to settle due to the controversies about aspirin.

In previous studies, it shows that people who take high levels and doses of aspirin can be very effective in preventing the developmentof colon cancer to a person.

However, consumption of this medicine can be very hazardous to most people; it oftentimes caused deadly and serious bleeding in a person’s intestines and stomach.

Another study regarding to a related painkiller medicine, ibuprofen also help reduce the cancer rates of colon cancer, for people who take the medication over a long period of time.

Lead author of the study, Peter Rothwell, from John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, together with his team, conducted four large studies of more than 14,000 people. Half of their subjects take low-dose of aspirin intended for treating heart disease.

Eighteen years later, only 2.8 percent of those volunteers developed and acquired colorectal cancer. They have found out that aspirin effectively reduce the risk of this illness by 24 percent, and at the same time it also lowered the risk of a person to die from this kind of disease by almost 35 percent.

These findings can help people who cannot afford expensive diagnosis and treatments for colon cancer, to get an affordable medication to prevent colorectal cancer in the future.

Via : seedol

Salix gets global license for Photocure's colon cancer diagnostic test

Norwegian specialty pharmaceutical company Photocure (OSE: PHO) said Wednesday it has signed a global agreement with Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SLXP) for the development and commercialization of Lumacan, a diagnostic test for colon cancer.

Colon cancer is traditionally diagnosed through colonoscopies with white light, which is increasingly known for its limitations in detecting cancer.

Lumacan is being developed to increase the detection rate for precancerous polyps and colon cancer through fluorescence diagnosis. In the US, it is estimated that approximately 14 million colonoscopies are done annually for diagnosis of colon cancer.

According to Photocure, earlier studies have shown a near 40% increased detection rate when Lumacan-colonoscopy diagnostic was used and the test is currently in Phase I/II trials.

Under the terms of the agreement, Salix will obtain an exclusive worldwide license to Lumacan, excluding the Nordic region, where Photocure has retained its rights.

In exchange for this, Photocure will receive a signing fee of US$4 million and is entitled to receive additional milestone payments totalling up to US$126.5 million, if certain conditions are satisfied.

In addition to the milestones, Salix will pay Photocure tiered double digit royalties on net sales and pay a percentage of all Salix sublicense revenue worldwide, outside of the US.

As a result of the deal, Salix will control and cover development, registration and commercialization costs for Lumacan globally, with Photocure covering certain costs of formulation development up to US$3 million, it said.

Aside for the indication of colorectal cancer, Salix will as well have the right to explore and develop products for additional indications involving the diagnosis of gastrointestinal dysplasia and cancer. Payments for products in respect to these indications will be negotiated in the future, said the companies.

"We believe Lumacan is truly an innovative and groundbreaking diagnostic which should complement our portfolio of gastrointestinal offerings. Lumacan's efficacy results thus far have been promising and show great potential if approved for marketing by the FDA," said CEO of Salix Carolyn Logan.

Salix said that Lumacan will target high risk screening patients and diagnostic patients in follow-up of colon cancer.

Via : proactiveinvestors

Lipitor May Reduce The Risk Of Colorectal Cancer

Here is another reason for your doctor to put you on a Statin, and another reason why Pfizer will be really sorry to lose their patent protection on the best selling Statin drug Lipitor. A researcher at the University of Michigan has found that not only is that class of medications good for helping prevent heart attacks and strokes. It may also reduce the risk of Colon and Rectal cancers by 12% if his reading of the statistics is correct.

Dr. Jewel Samader says the effect works for all of the statin anti-cholesterol drugs. He crunched the data from 22 scientific studies and found a statistical link. He says he has no idea why it works, that would take additional research.

Pfizer loses patent exclusivity on Lipitor in November of next year. Colorectal Cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths each year in the U.S. 150-thousand are diagnosed with the disease each year.

Via : wtvbam

Scientists discover AIDS drug attacks herpes virus

A European team of researchers has discovered that raltegravir, the drug sold by pharmaceutical firm Merck under the name Isentress and used to treat AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), could help treat the herpes virus. The study, funded in part by the SPINE2-COMPLEXES ('From receptor to gene: structures of complexes from signalling pathways linking immunology, neurobiology and cancer') project, which received EUR 12 million under the 'Life sciences, genomics and biotechnology for health' Thematic area of the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), could lead to the development of a drug capable of fighting the entire herpesvirus family.

Led by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) in Spain, the researchers provide evidence that raltegravir can cancel the function of an essential protein for the replication of one kind of herpes virus.

'These results have a clear medical impact for three reasons,' explained Miquel Coll, coordinator of the IRB's Structural and Computational Biology Programme. 'First, humans do not have the viral protein that is affected, thus this would allow a highly specific drug that does not show the secondary effects that other drugs may have. Second, the inhibitor is not toxic for humans when administered at therapeutic concentrations because it is already on the market and thus toxicity tests are facilitated; and third, we have data that indicate that all herpes viruses have this protein. Therefore, it could be a valid target against all Herpesviridae.'

Herpes viruses include pathogens such as herpes simplex 1 and 2 - the virus that causes chickenpox (otherwise known as zoster virus), the Epstein-Barr virus (which is associated with several types of cancer), the roseola virus, the cytomegalovirus and the herpes virus associated with the cancer Kaposi sarcoma.

The human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) on which the study was performed causes neurological defects in 1% of neonates in developed countries. It also produces retinitis that deteriorates into blindness in 25% of people with AIDS, defects in the brains and central nervous systems of young adults, inflammation of the colon, mononucleosis - more commonly known as the 'kissing disease' - and serious diseases of the throat.

Although 90% of adults carry HCMV this virus is opportunistic, acting in people with weakened immune systems including cancer and AIDS patients, recipients of organ transplants and neonates.

To replicate, the herpes virus enters the nucleus of a cell where it uses the cell machinery to copy its DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) several times into a single large chain. Once this copy has been made, a complex called terminase, formed by three protein subunits, cuts the new DNA into small fragments the size of a single viral genome and introduces these into empty shells (capsids) that have developed in the cell nucleus. The new viruses then leave the cell to continue infection.

The researchers resolved the 3D (three-dimensional) structure of one part of the terminase using a state-of-the-art high-performance protein expression technique, with the collaboration with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, and discovered that it resembled the integrase of the AIDS virus, for which drugs are available.

The assays were performed directly on the protein in test tubes. 'Now we must do the assays on whole infected cells, improve the effect of the drug and validate that it is also effective for other kinds of herpes viruses,' said Dr Coll, whose laboratory has patented this second application for raltegravir.

Contributions to this study were made by experts from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

The findings of which were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS).

Via : cordis.europa.eu